funeral

Forms

funeral m or f (masculine and feminine plural funerales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin fūnerālis (“of a funeral”), a learned word.^[1][2][3][4] The Latin adjective is built on the stem fūner- of fūnus (“funeral rites”) with the suffix -ālis.^[1][5] Bénaben notes that the Latin noun was often used in the plural, because mourning involved several ceremonies.^[4]

The same Latin adjective gave Catalan funeral, recorded from the 14th century, and Portuguese funeral, recorded from 1559.^[6][7] Italian funerale is the Italian counterpart.^[5] The French noun is instead funérailles, from the Medieval Latin plural fūnerālia.^[1]

The origin of the Latin noun is unclear.^[8][1] De Vaan mentions two proposals: a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to be afraid”), if an old form with a diphthong recorded in a gloss is genuine, or a noun *dʰewh₂-nes- (“closing ceremony”), which Watkins compares with Hittite verbs meaning “to end”; he finds neither compelling.^[8] Wiktionary starts from Proto-Italic *fūnos and also considers a link with the family of the English word death.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is the adjective in Enrique de Villena's Tratado de consolación (1424), in a list of misfortunes that includes orbaçión de sepoltura e funeral inhonramiento “being deprived of burial, and dishonour at the funeral”.^[9] A translation of Boccaccio's Teseida of about 1450 speaks of el vltimo honor funeral “the last funeral honour” paid to royal bodies.^[9] The noun, in the plural, is found in 1515, in documents on the death of the Gran Capitán: the crowd that came to sus funerales did not fit in the church.^[9] Corominas dated the word only from 1590, and DICCA-XV from 1440–1460.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the adjective was common in phrases such as pompa funeral, honras funerales and exequias funerales.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1732) recorded both the adjective “belonging to burial or obsequies” and the noun for the pomp and ceremony of a burial and the rites for the dead, with a quotation on the city's funerales for the late queen.^[11] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 noted that the noun was used more often in the plural, and recorded the military phrase a la funerala, for soldiers carrying their arms pointed downwards in Holy Week and at the funeral of a monarch or general.^[12] Domínguez (1846–1847) also gave it the sense “sad, gloomy”.^[13]

Today the adjective means “relating to burial and funeral rites”, and the noun names both the solemnity of a burial and the rites themselves, in the singular or the plural.^[3] Moliner defines the noun first as the solemn religious service held for the dead.^[14] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1588, in New Granada, and a document of 1625 mentions the revenue from the cuarta funeral.^[15] The DLE also lists cuarta funeral as a phrase.^[3]

Timeline

• 1424 – Enrique de Villena uses the adjective in the Tratado de consolación, the CDH's first record.^[9]
• c. 1450 – a Spanish translation of Boccaccio's Teseida has honor funeral.^[9]
• 1515 – the plural noun funerales appears in documents on the death of the Gran Capitán.^[9]
• 1588 – the first record in the Americas, from New Granada.^[15]
• 1590 – Corominas's date of first record.^[2]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the adjective and the noun.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records a la funerala.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives the word from Latin funus.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. funerary, funeral: relating to burial and to the rites for the dead: Sonaba una marcha funeral.^[3][1]

Noun

1. The pomp and solemnity with which a burial or obsequies are carried out.^[3]
2. The obsequies themselves, the funeral rites; also in the plural with the same sense: Los funerales del alcalde serán el lunes.^[3][1]
3. A solemn religious service held for a dead person, a requiem mass.^[14][17]

Related words

• funerario
• exequias
• Latin fūnus

Usage notes

The noun is used in the singular and the plural with the same meaning (el funeral, los funerales).^[3][14] A service held with the body present is a funeral de córpore insepulto or funeral de cuerpo presente.^[17] The adverbial phrase a la funerala described arms carried pointing down in mourning.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. funeral
3. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. funeral
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. funeral
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 311
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 230
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. funeral
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. funeral
10. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. funeral
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. funeral
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 430
13. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 841
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. funeral
15. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. funeral
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 514
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. funeral